From left: Monika Schwab, Terrence Hill, Robert White and Terry Cunningham, all of Jackson, stand near the hole left at 1010 Maple Ave. in Jackson Thursday. Terrence Hill purchased the property at the Jackson County Tax Sale in September 2012. The house at the address was torn down by the City of Jackson on Monday, Jan. 21. Mike Mulholland | MLive.com

JACKSON, MI – Terrence Hill had spent months working on a new home he thought he'd bought in a Jackson County tax foreclosure sale in September.

He'd sunk $3,000 in the home on Maple Avenue — putting on a new roof, installing brand new carpeting and putting up new drywall. Just new windows would have completed the home, which he planned to rent out.

On Friday, Jan., 18, Hill discovered the city had turned utilities off and claimed the home was on its demolition list. Just three days later, he headed over to the property, only to see a crane tearing down the home he'd worked on for four months.

“I just couldn’t believe it,” he said. “I was shocked.”

Hill isn't alone in his confusion.

Homeowners who think they are helping the city tackle blight by purchasing foreclosed homes are finding themselves in a much different fight.

However, Hill claims he was told he could work on the home by Chief Building Inspector Frank Donovan. Donovan disputes those claims, saying Hill never had the necessary permits to do work.

Although the properties have been purchased from the county, city officials say the structures on them are governed by city housing codes and state building codes. Buyers also only purchase the deed to a property at tax auctions, this allows the city to demolish them, even if the property is sold by the county, officials said.

A worker clears the property at 1010 Maple Ave. in Jackson Thursday. Terrence Hill purchased the property at the Jackson County Tax Sale in September 2012. The house at the address was torn down by the City of Jackson on Monday.Mike Mulholland | MLive.com

Donovan and others said potential homeowners should check with the city to see if a property is on the demolition list. Of those currently on the list, about 100 are labeled as county owned and many were condemned last year.

“(The property owners) never contact us about any of them until after they’ve bought it,” Donovan said. “That’s how a lot of these things go.”

At the September tax sale, Marty Spaulding from Title Check LLC, warned bidders they needed to do their homework and check to see if the house was on the demolition list. He also tried to make it clear that they were purchasing the deeds, not the houses.

“We wanted the city to own them so we wouldn’t have to battle people who maybe can’t afford (demolition),” Jackson City Manager Patrick Burtch said in September.

Houses that have been demolished as part of its Neighborhood Stabilization Program so far have sat vacant for years.

“If there’s a house they consider unsafe or severely blighted they go through the process of condemning the home,” Burtch said. “Many of these homes were condemned prior to that sale.”

After the county tax sale in September homeowners like Troy Jordan, Monica Schwab and others filed a suit against the city to stop the demolition on properties they'd just purchased. According to court documents, the lawsuit was denied on Jan. 15 in Circuit Court.

“The county is pointing fingers at the city and the city is pointing fingers at the county,” Hill said.

In Jordan’s case, the property he bid on was not placed on the demolition list until the night before the auction. Jordan had planned to renovate the home for his family.

Schwab said she is going to continue to fight the city legally; she and Hill are trying to find others in the same situation to file civil action.

“What they’re doing is illegal,” Schwab said.

Both the city and the county are saying they are following protocol. The city's neighborhood stabilization program was enacted last year — making September's tax foreclosure auction the first since the program began.

Jackson County Administrator Michael Overton said, however, said the county should do more to make the 'particulars of a property' known to the public.

Burtch said that with some of the homes that have been condemned are in such bad shape that renovations are cost prohibitive. Many of the homes on the list would cost more to fix than to demolish, he said.

“I personally feel poorly for those who are in these positions,” he said, adding that the county has the right to sell the property. "The city is trying to keep the residents safe and they believe that is through the process of removing abandoned homes.”